On 10 January 2024, the National Internet Centre ("LANIC") of the Ministry of Technology and Communications of Lao PDR and the National Internet Centre ("VNNIC") of the Ministry of Information and Communications of the Republic of Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding ("MOU") on cooperation in the development of internet resources. The purpose of the MOU is to enhance bilateral cooperation between Lao PDR and Vietnam in the fields of (i) management and development of national internet resources and improvement of the important infrastructure of the internet, and (ii) cooperation, counselling and human resource development to encourage and promote the work of digital transformation in Lao PDR.
At the signing ceremony, LANIC and VNNIC agreed to collaborate whereby VNNIC would share its expertise with LANIC on country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD), Domain Name System (DNS) and Internet security, Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) transition activity, statistics collection and monitoring. VNNIC would also conduct training and seminars to encourage LANIC to create a Lao Internet Exchange Network Operation Group (LIXNOG).
LANIC and VNNIC have been collaborating on internet resource development since 2011. In 2012, LANIC sent delegates to VNNIC for six months to learn internet name coding. In 2013, LANIC and VNNIC also signed the Minutes of the Meeting on the direction and cooperation plan for 2013 to 2015 in relation to the drafting of legislation and regulations on internet code in Lao PDR, as well as training and technical support.
In 2016, LANIC and VNNIC continued to cooperate and support each other. VNNIC sent employees and experts to conduct training on internet name code work for LANIC, covering topics such as policy and legislation of internet name code, third level internet name code in Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and local language internet name code.
In addition to internet name code work, VNNIC also provides support to LANIC in the field of resource management and the use of Internet Protocol (IP). It has also sent employees and experts to LANIC to provide training for this purpose.